


Tin Mouse Diaries

by melagan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 10:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melagan/pseuds/melagan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ancients left something behind. Outsider POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tin Mouse Diaries

**Author's Note:**

> Written for pic for 1000 2014

Mouse sat on the highest shelf, watched and waited. She was good at stillness. Her internal calendar predicted that this would be the day. It was Thursday. The two-leggers always showed up on Thursday not long after their third meal. Her instructional update referred to them as the Nu-Lanteans. She rolled this new word over her processors and decided she liked the sound of it.

She kept a special watch out for the two that called each other Colonel and McKay. Others also played games but these two were her favorites. They had other names: John, Rodney, Sheppard, Heybuddy, Smartass, but these were the two names she knew best.

The room was quiet. It had sat empty for a long time, its function unknown or forgotten. In the last few months, someone had furnished it with a table and chairs, a wide couch, and something called a mini-fridge. Footsteps approached the door and Mouse huddled on her perch. Anyone looking would only see a small, tin-plated marble.

Without a single twitch of her whiskers, she watched. The soft whir of her processors made little noise —too faint for them to hear. She'd been watching for weeks but tonight —if they brought him —tonight she dared to introduce herself.

She knew he was here the minute she saw the Box. Colonel began to set up the board. The black and white geometrics appealed to Mouse. Truly, it was beautiful in its simple organization, and just looking at it made her gears hum.

McKay's long fingers pulled each piece from a bag as one by one, he gently placed them on the board. Mouse sat in rapt attention as finally, 'he' joined the rest, and he was as imposing as she remembered. His sleek, black shape, so different from the others, resembled Pegasus itself. The black knight. Brave, daring, and yes, aloof but not cold. His ivory counterpart seemed lackluster and boring in comparison.

As for the two-leggers, she knew their habits well. She only had to wait.

The game was only half over when Colonel leaned back, kicked off his boots, licked his lips, and moved his hands out of Mouse's sight. She heard the sound of a zipper, the rustling of cloth, and then McKay began to make assorted vocal noises.

This was her chance to steal up to the black knight and make her introductions. She trembled, her delicate paws clasped together as she gathered her courage. Her black knight looked so imposing; what would he think of her?

As the noises turned to gasping, breathless sounds, Mouse crept down from the shelf. She paused at the foot of the table leg. Faint heart wouldn't bring her any closer so she dug her claws in and began to climb. She couldn't get out of breath of course, and she couldn't feel nervous, but that it didn't stop her sync-node from skipping. Creeping up to her shiny knight, Mouse stood on her back paws and reached up. Feeling courageous, she patted the Knight's hard, smooth cheek.

He didn't respond. That was okay. She had a plan.

" **Y** ou're drooling on me." John pushed gently at Rodney's shoulder.

"Er, sorry." Rodney wiped at his mouth. "Hand me my pants, would you?"

"Yeah, sure." John tossed his pants at him then tapped his watch. "We need to get moving."

"Oh god, I think I'm getting too old for couch gymnastics." Rodney rubbed at his lower back.

John smirked. "That's not what you were moaning twenty minutes ago."

Shortly, in the midst of much snuffling, grunting, and some bitching about the wrong socks, the two of them gained a semblance of presentability.

"Sheppard, you've managed to knock half the chess pieces on to the floor," Rodney grumbled. He did a quick check around the table. "One's missing."

"Give me a minute." John tapped his earpiece. "Dr. Weir, what's wrong?"

Rodney grabbed up his own earwig to listen in.

"There's been a breach in the nanite lab," Elizabeth said. "Dr. Zelenka is already working on it but I need you and Rodney there as soon as possible."

"On our way." John shoved Rodney's laptop at him. "C'mon, McKay, we need go."

"But the pieces. How can we be missing one? It doesn't make any sense."

"So you said. We can look for it later. It's not like it could go anywhere by itself." John began to dragging Rodney out of the room. "After you shut down the lab."

 **T** in mouse waited patiently. It was a very tiny nanite injection after all and quick to work. Her knight looked like a true warrior, fierce and valiant. With the assistance of the nanites, he had the mobility now of four legs and a beautiful pair of wings.

She could hear the Nu-Lanteans outside the door and they sounded worried. She'd have to leave soon but not without her Pegasus knight.

He woke. His new eyes blinked in the bright light of the lab until he saw her. With an elegant bow, he asked, "How may I be of service, milady? Doth thou need protection? "  


"Not I. But I have been charged with protecting this city and the Nu-Lanteans."  


"Your charges, are they in grave trouble?" he asked.

"Often, and poorly equipped to handle it on their own," Mouse answered.

Kneeling at her feet, the black knight crossed one wing over his chest. "Then I make your mission mine own, milady, even if it means sacrificing my own life."

"There is quite enough of that going on as it is." If Mouse could sigh, she would have. "Hurry, we must go. We have our work cut out for us. These Nu-Lanteans seem just as hell bent on getting into trouble as the first city dwellers."

"Ah, and so you have called me into service."

Mouse smiled tenderly at her knight. He'd soon learn they were all misfits here. But she'd learned as she watched the Colonel and McKay. They stood together so none had to stand alone.

  



End file.
